Healthy fare sure to ‘poke’ the right spot

January 21, 2018

Story By: Stephanie Kim | Photos by: MARK GALACGAC

New Year’s resolutions are typically in one “year” and out the other. But stick to yours by resolving to accompany your workouts with nourishing food that’s not only healthy, but tastes good, too.

At Poke & Box, one can find an array of nutrient-rich dishes that’ll help you accomplish your goal of clean eating in 2018.

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Medium customized PokeBox ($10.99)

“We have a lot of people who come by after the gym to grab a post-workout meal,” says general manager Lauren Yoo. She adds that the restaurant has a number of healthy options, such as salad and brown rice, as well as different protein selections.

What’s more, the Ala Moana Center eatery lets diners pick and choose their items, offering an endless amount of combinations. In assembly-line fashion, customers are given a clear view of each component that completes their meal, starting with a base (rice or salad) and moving down the line to see fresh proteins, rich sauces and toppings galore.

Small customized PokeBox ($8.99)

To start, choose from small ($8.99), medium ($10.99) or large ($15.99) PokeBox sizes. Then, pick white rice, brown rice or green salad as your PokeBoxBase, and your main item, or PokeBoxMix, such as fresh ahi, shrimp or tofu — just to name a few. Move on to coating your mix with one of the delicious sauces available at the restaurant.

Yoo recommends the following combinations: salmon with creamy sesame; shrimp with wasabi mustard; ahi with shoyu or spicy shoyu; tako with gochujang (Korean red chili paste); and tofu with the eatery’s spicy concoctions that come in four different levels — mild, hot or very spicy, and, the latest and “hottest” addition, fire bomb.

Pile on PokeBoxTops from dry toppings (furikake, dried onion or nori flakes) — which enhance the flavors of the dish, according to Yoo — to other toppings, such as jalapeno, pineapple, kimchee and masago.